Rice is the pre-eminent food for the bulk of the global community. Neither natural rice nor "instant" rices contain sufficient nutrients to be life-sustaining if used as the sole source of food. This deficiency is more marked for active persons, old persons and children who, for differing reasons, need to be certain that each unit of food taken in provides a maximum amount of nutritional benefit.
Natural milled rice and "instant" rice contain little, if any, fiber and are, with the exception of carbohydrate, deficient in every other class of important nutrient, including protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. The Total Energy Profile (TEP) is markedly inadequate to sustain life in the three to five year old age category. U.S. Government programs have been developed over the past decades to distribute a considerable proportion of the country's grain surpluses to needy areas of the world. These surpluses include rice. The surpluses are used not only to fight malnutrition but are also employed as hunger relief in areas of periodic and chronic starvation. Problems have arisen in the areas where rice has been distributed as a major source of total food intake due to deficiency of macro and micro nutrients such as vitamin A, iron, calcium and phosphorus. Many unfortunate circumstances of permanently damaged vision and blindness continue to be reported from areas where rice is employed as a principle foodstuff. The damage is particularly serious among the young and old who are usually most dependent on such foods. Anemia and diseases related to anemic conditions continue to wreak havoc with undernourished and starving people dependent on rice.
In determined attempts to resolve the problem, leaders and scientists at U.S. government agencies have sought methods to combat the foregoing problems. None have yet been successful. Attempts have been made to enrobe or coat the grains, or to soak the necessary nutrients into them. Vitamins and minerals coated on or soaked into rice grains are more readily destroyed because the major destructive forces, light and exposure to air, are at work on the surface. To add to the problem, many foreign cultures prescribe scrupulous washing of rice grains and/or cooking in copious volumes of water before eating. Much, if not all, of the fortifications are thus washed away. Finally, for unprocessed raw rice grains, long cooking is required to make them edible, further destroying any fortifications which have survived to that point.
Reduced cost is vital to feeding the maximum number of hungry. A concentrated, pre-mixed product like native grains, but containing very large amounts of vitamins, could be mixed throughout the bulk of natural grains to ensure an adequate vitamin fortification of the grains. In order to qualify for this use, the concentrate grain must be stable and must protect the added nutrients from degrading processes product during preparation, storage and transportation.
For use by destitute persons, the rice product should be able to be consumed and digested with the use of very little or no fuel. There is virtually no place in the world outside of the developed countries where rice is not recognized as the primary foodstuff. It has been claimed that 25% of the world's calories come from rice. Two billion people (about 1/2 the world population) depend on rice for 80% of their food.
The need for nutritionally improved, stable, ready to eat or low energy-requiring, inexpensive, traditional rice grain analogues to serve the function of hunger relief cannot be over-emphasized. The inability to cross cultural barriers has resulted in the failure of most notable attempts, such as Incaparina, Pronutro, and Peruvita, at resolving hunger relief. The products were simply not recognized as food, were mistrusted, or seemed to break some obscure or unaccounted-for cultural taboo of the recipient. The present invention now makes possible omnipreparational and nutrient-stable rice grain products which are made substantially from rice grains and selected nutrients, including micro and macro nutrients and even medicines, in a form which will be recognized within the limits of specific cultural expectations and be readily acceptable.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,844,936 and 5,252,351 issued to Cox describe the use of grain, cereal, seeds, legumes and leafy vegetables mixed with a settable gel to form a quick-cooking product. Due to steam and oxidation from drying encountered in production and required preparation, nutrients are unavoidably degraded, the product is not nutrient-stable and does not protect many important nutrients which could otherwise be added. These products are not ready to eat per se, but are hot, liquid, rehydratable products.
Products produced according to these Cox patents are destructive of, and can not stabilize many, important nutrients which might be added due to factors such as oxidation, steaming, cooking and leaching during processing. The process requires more or less complete gelatinization (cooking), rinsing, freezing and major drying steps. Moreover, these products will lose some edible texture and will partially disintegrate when cooked, such as when included in single course prepared foods such as casseroles, or when prepared by boiling. The products of these patents are, by comparison, also more expensive to make than products made according to the present invention.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,914,005 and 3,071,471 issued to Gorozpe disclose the use of broken or malformed rice grains to form quick-cooking rice product, but do not disclose the use of alginates or other binders. The products proposed by Gorozpe do not provide a reconstituted rice grain which, upon preparation, is similar to natural rice. The products produced according to Gorozpe disintegrate into a paste when cooked. Moreover, they cannot be eaten uncooked, prepared merely by the addition of liquids, cooked for periods of time required by natural rice grains, or over-cooked. They do not provide protection for, or give stability to, added nutrients.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,683 issued to Kamada discloses the use of alginates, among other polysaccharides, in connection with puffed rice, but not with broken or malformed rice grains; nor is the reconstitution of grains to form an edible product disclosed. The product proposed by Kamada cannot be eaten uncooked, prepared by the addition of hot or cold fluids, cooked like a natural rice grain, or over-cooked without losing the character of the natural rice grain. The Kamada product is not a reconstituted rice grain made from flour and does not look like, taste, or otherwise mimic natural rice. The Kamada product cannot incorporate important nutrients and medicines, and cannot sequester important additives to protect them from natural degeneration. The Kamada product is brown, irregular, and lacks the rice grain shape. When cooked, the Kamada product is slimy, tastes abnormal, and unrice-like. .Finally, the Kamada product (due mainly to puffing) is quite expensive to produce.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,976 issued to Harrow discloses the use of an extruder to re-form gelatinized and un-gelatinized flour into a rice product. Harrow does not disclose the use of algin or binders. The Harrow product is deficient for the same reasons as is Gorozpe.
A United States patent issued to Lechthaler discloses the use of rice flour in combination with alginates and a setting bath. The Lechthaler product is not omnipreparational. It can be prepared only within a narrow range of preparation parameters. It is not ready to eat uncooked, or upon the addition of liquids. It cannot be cooked like natural rice grains or over-cooked. Due to high pressure heat encountered in production, the Lechthaler product is not nutrient-stable and results in degradation of many added nutrients such as vitamins, medicines, hydroxy keto analogues, oils and fats, for example.
None of the prior art proposes the inclusion of phosphate salts in formed rice grains or bits as an alternative to the addition of starch decomplexing and neutralizing agents. None proposes reacting the formed grain or bit for brief periods at high temperatures at or near the melting point of starches. None proposes abbreviated and inexpensive drying accomplished by processing at high temperatures for brief periods of time followed by extracting moisture with brief voluminous exposure to fluid, usually air, but sometimes an inert gas. None proposes the saturation of grain or bit components with inert fluid, such as nitrogen, to prevent oxidative degeneration of labile additives such as vitamin A.
No known prior art proposes omnipreparational reconstituted rice grains. No known prior art proposes production and preparation methods for formed grains or bits for protecting important sequestered nutrients and food additives.
A principal objective of the present invention is to provide reconstituted rice grain, grain-based bit and grain products and analogues that are ready to eat uncooked and/or when prepared by a wide variety of means and methods.
Another principal objective is to produce and maintain important life-supporting, omnipreparational and nutrient-stable rice bits including grains with additives which can be stabilized, as well as rice analogues which retain nutrients over much longer periods of time and wider ranges of circumstances than normally possible by treating native rice externally.
An important objective is to provide reconstituted grain, grain analogue or grain product that has amplified or improved organoleptic properties over that of natural whole grains.
A specific object is the use of by-products of natural foods, such as broken grains, bits or malformed grains to manufacture whole grain, grain analogue, or composite bit products.
An important objective is to provide a product that protects and stabilizes delicate and important food additives, such as proteins, protein derivatives, lipids, vitamins, minerals, fats, and/or pharmaceuticals, or medicines to prolong their useful life throughout transportation and storage, and to protect them from being destroyed or lost during washing and/or preparation.
A specific object is to provide a rice grain product which is nutritionally balanced such that it may be eaten as a sole ration for life support or diet control.
Another object is to provide a rice product which has restored, enhanced, intensified and sometimes new flavors and aromas.
A further object of the invention is to provide a rice grain analogue, grain-based or grain bit product that can have nutritional value equal to or greater than natural whole grains.
An important object is to provide an inexpensive method of producing bit grains, grain analogues or bit products made substantially from grains, grain hybrids and grain products, particularly with respect to drying.
A valuable object is to provide high starch-bearing bit products which, when eaten, will digest more slowly and evenly than native starch to assure controlled release of converted sugars systemically in aid of those with metabolic disorders, the health minded, and athletes.